G.M. Idles Plant in Atlanta And Stirs U.A.W.'s Anger

The General Motors Corporation said today that it was idling its Lakewood assembly plant in Atlanta, prompting an angry charge of hypocrisy by the United Automobile Workers' new executive in charge of relations with G.M.

The No. 1 auto maker, which has been saddled with too much plant capacity throughout the 1980's for the number of vehicles it has been selling, said it did not have a vehicle program to replace the current production at Lakewood of Chevrolet Caprices and Buick Estate Wagons, which will cease in March.

G.M. said 2,200 salaried and hourly workers are currently employed at the plant, although about 1,000 already are on temporary layoff.

A Buick spokesman, meanwhile, declined to comment on the future of the Estate Wagon. The Chevrolet Caprice is also built in G.M.'s assembly plant in Arlington, Tex., but both vehicles might be built at Arlington as part of a new generation of rear-wheel-drive full-size cars.

The union's angry blast came from Stephen P. Yokich, U.A.W. vice president, who assumed his current post two months ago. His anger was an indication of a worsening climate of labor relations between the company and the union. Moreover, Mr. Yokich said some ''cooperative programs'' between G.M. managers and hourly workers were not working well. Cooperative Programs

Mr. Yokich replaced Donald Ephlin, who was an outspoken proponent of the auto maker's cooperative programs, which sought to formalize worker involvement in management issues like quality and productivity improvements. Mr. Ephlin's criticism of recent G.M. plant closings had been somewhat muted; many G.M. managers and executives have been saying they are anxious to find out if Mr. Yokich is as enthusiastic about cooperative programs as Mr. Ephlin was.

''We are tired of the hypocrisy of congratulating workers for a job well done and rewarding them with layoffs,'' Mr. Yokich said in a statement, noting that the G.M. announcement had praised Lakewood workers for 60 years of ''building fine products.''

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Technically, the Lakewood plant could be reopened at some future date if General Motors decided to locate a vehicle program there, a company spokesman said. But Lakewood is the fourth G.M. assembly plant to be idled since ratification of the 1987 labor agreement with the U.A.W. that barred permanent plant shutdowns. The other idled plants are in Leeds, Mo.; Pontiac, Mich., and Framingham, Mass., and G.M. unofficially acknowledges it is unlikely they all will reopen.

Under the terms of the 1987 agreement, G.M. was permitted to idle plants if it was forced to do so by falling sales. But Mr. Yokich said, ''G.M. management is not trying nearly hard enough to fulfill its obligations under the national agreement and to source offshore production back into domestic plants if necessary to maintain employment here.'' 'Short-Sighted Decisions'

Mr. Yokich also said G.M. senior management ''continues to make short-sighted decisions that shatter morale and suggest that the near-term bottom line is still what matters most'' at G.M. headquarters.

''There's still time for G.M. to demonstrate that it truly wants a new relationship with the union and union workers,'' he added, ''but episodes like this aren't helping at all.''

G.M. said both hourly and salaried workers would be eligible for a variety of unemployment benefits, but a U.A.W. spokesman said some of the benefit programs do not have much money left in them because of the number of layoffs at G.M. in the last two years.

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A version of this article appears in print on September 15, 1989, on Page D00001 of the National edition with the headline: G.M. Idles Plant in Atlanta And Stirs U.A.W.'s Anger. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe